1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for configuring a backlight device by combining a plurality of light guide plates.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to reduce the thickness of a backlight of a liquid crystal display apparatus, a technology for forming an illumination unit by arranging a plurality of light emitting units each having a light source and a small light guide plate is known. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-272423 discloses an illumination device that includes a plurality of units each having a light source and a light guide plate. The light guide plate has a light emission surface that emits light reflected from a reflection surface and a light guide unit that guides the light entered into the light guide plate to the light emission surface. For reducing the thickness of a backlight, units are obliquely stacked to each other such that the side surface of the light guide plate is adjacent to the reflection surface. With this arrangement, a portion near the light source (light guide unit) is always positioned at the end of the backlight. Consequently, the portion undesirably extends outside the light emission region of a backlight device consisting of a plurality of light emission surfaces. Thus, the width of at least one side of the screen outer frame (frame section) needs to be expanded.
In the conventional configuration as described above, the light guide unit of the light guide plate extends outside at least one side of the light emission region of the backlight device consisting of a plurality of light emission surfaces, and thus, the width of the outer frame of the display apparatus is expanded. This may result in restriction in designing the display apparatus.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a backlight device in which a plurality of light emitting units each having a light source and a light guide plate is arranged such that the light guide units of light guide plates do not extend outside the light emission region of the backlight device.